H -°, L 54° | Tomorrow: 
H 74°, L 50°Kellie Sanders
What makes Madison such a unique place? I think that it has a lot to do with the amount of opportunities that students here are offered. Whatever you want to get involved in, whether it be diversity issues, environmental activism, or an internship with an organization, there is something out there for everyone.
The Student Service Finance Committee are the people who get to decide what services are important to students here on campus, and how much funding they should receive in order to better serve the students. Each year every student pays roughly $650 into the segregated fee system, which then gets allocated among different organizations and programs provided to students.
I am running for SSFC because I firmly believe in the system that we have, and want to make sure that committee is looking out for the students' interests. This is our money, and that money should represent what the students want to have available to them.
I will also do this in a fiscally responsible way. With the rising cost of tuition, it's important to ensure our money is being spent wisely. Many people will attribute the rise in tuition to the rise in segregated fees, but this is the one portion of our education that we have complete control over, so if you want to make sure your money is being spent in a responsible way and representing your needs, vote for me.
I have budgetary experience with student organizations here on campus, and I also serve on a committee that allocates money nationwide. If you want your money spent by an experienced, thoughtful and responsible person, then vote Kellie for SSFC.
David Lapidus
I believe in the platform of the Robin Hood Slate. If segregated fees are not being spent in the interest of the majority of students, then they shouldn't be taken from students in the first place. We are already hit hard enough by the cost of tuition; there is no reason why our own budget committee should hit us harder with costs that offer little of value to the vast majority of us.
Many in the Student Segregated Funds Committee and large student organizations, however, oppose this philosophy, and would love to spend our money with no consideration for the financial burden placed upon students. Sometimes it is because SSFC members want a $5,000 annual salary; sometimes it is because clubs with budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars want money to send their members on exclusive trips to Florida.
Those who abuse your money will say the amount concerned is small. They'll say that only 15 percent of the $22 million in segregated fees last year was controlled by the SSFC. What they will not mention is that even that "small" amount was around $3 million, and that it grows in size 10 percent annually. This is money that could help relieve the burden of our tuition. Instead it goes toward the corruption and wasteful spending of our government.
This practice cannot continue.
I will never spend our money unless it serves the majority of students.
I will never allow our money to be spent on salaries for our student government.
I will eliminate excessive acronyms (SSFC, ASM, etc.) that allow our government to act in secrecy and with no accountability. Every student is a member of Student Government — they should know what's going on.
Vote for David Lapidus — Your Tuition Will be Well Spent
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Too bad Kellie is also on the executive board of WISPIRG on campus. The heads of special interest groups sitting on the body that doles out student money to special interests? Wow. The Herald should have been able to screen this out.
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The WISPIRG budget will be presented debated, and approved before the elections are even finished and confirmed, besides the fact that if you hold a leadership posistion in an organization you can not vote on it. Lots of members of the SSFC are on boards of groups, including Brad Vogl, who was on the executive board of UWRCF.
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Given that she is a WISPIRG executive, she would be UNABLE to vote on the WISPIRG budget. This is a new SSFC bylaw changed implemented by this year’s committee. It applies to all SSFC members who were currently or formerly paid or leadership staff of a GSSF-funded organization.
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Too Bad David is simply Brad Vogels little diciple, a person who no body on the committee takes seriously, David is simply full of lots of rhetoric, the robin hood slates agenda has become clear, defund liberal organization, increase funding to conservative groups, look at the vote records its very clear. David’s lack of experience with this will be shown, and he will make a fool out of himself on the SSFC
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let us not forget there are two seats up for election here, so whats with all the campaigning??
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Looks like a pretty clear contrast between candidates in this election round. Sanders would like the student body’s money to be in the pockets of the special interests (diversity, environment, etc) where Lapidus will look at each budget and line item objectively in determing funding decisions. What will Sanders do when WISPIRG presents for SSFC? Will she giver her presentation and then go back and occupy her elected seat? How can you be someone who presents a group’s budget to a financial board also sit on that same financial board? I hope the student body recognizes this conflict of interest and sends the correct candidate to this important SSFC.
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David clearly has no idea what he is talking about, if it weren’t for the College Republicans asking him to run, he wouldn’t know SSFC existed.
“I will eliminate excessive acronyms (SSFC, ASM, etc.) that allow our government to act in secrecy and with no accountability.”
How exactly do the words ASM and SSFC allow the government to act in secrecy? All meeting times are posted about a semester in advance, all meetings are open to the public, etc. So David, what the hell are you talking about?
“Many in the Student Segregated Funds Committee”
You mean Student Service Finance Committee? Good thing you at least know the name of the committee you’re running for.
“This is money that could help relieve the burden of our tuition.”
Not even close. Students have no say over tuition, and the two bills aren’t at all related. Besides, the chancellor sets seg fee levels, not ASM.
“Sometimes it is because SSFC members want a $5,000 annual salary”
Ummm… was there ever an instance of this? Only the SSFC chair gets a stipend, and considering all the hours she puts in it’s not even close to minimum wage.
Seriously, actually vote for someone who knows what they’re talking about.
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Vogel isn’t even on the committee anymore. Get over it.
This should clearly be a debate about the size of government and levels of spending. Sanders is for the status quo, Lapidus wants reform. It seems like reform is needed.
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“the robin hood slates agenda has become clear, defund liberal organization, increase funding to conservative groups”
Where are all of these conservative groups? THERE AREN’T ANY.
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Yes indeed.
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Hi anonymous critics,
I believe that those who choose to pursue public service should be an open book; they should be as accountable as possible to their constituents. For this reason, I will not cower behind a title of anonymity. I will address all criticism here as myself, not Mr. Inconspicuous.
" Too Bad David is simply Brad Vogels little diciple, a person who no body on the committee takes seriously,"
Without guys like Brad Vogel on the SSFC, there'd be no debate on budget issues. I'd think most fiscally responsible candidates would want Vogel as a teacher. If being a disciple of someone who doesn't want to waste our money is seen as negative, maybe some people need to reevaluate their standards defining character.
"David is simply full of lots of rhetoric, the robin hood slates agenda has become clear, defund liberal organization, increase funding to conservative groups, look at the vote records its very clear."
On the SSFC, I will be a Robin Hood Slate member first before anything else. This doesn't mean I will fund only programs that I share a partisan closeness to; rather Robin Hood means to serve the majority student interest before anything else.
This means that if any budget program is redundant, doesn't follow legal guidelines of the SSFC, doesn't contribute to a campus dialogue on issues concerning the majority of students, is inefficient, unused, or useless, it will be cut.
Whether such programs are Republican, Democrat, ISA, Anarchist, Libertarian, Green, etc. related will not enter into the equation at all.
Your accusation that the voting records prove Robin Hood Slate members vote only for conservative organization budgets and against liberal organization budgets is false. To use a recent counter-example, there were Robin Hood Slate SSFC members that voted in the majority against the Roman Catholic Foundation's budget last month.
"David’s lack of experience with this will be shown, and he will make a fool out of himself on the SSFC"
How do you know I lack experience? I never stated my credentials for a reason; perhaps it was because I wanted to focus on the issues, not resumes?
Besides, if you use the "they have no experience" for an office like this, that is in effect an argument supporting that only elite candidates you deem "experienced" are worthy to take office in the SSFC. This sounds like a rather arrogant statement to me.
"David clearly has no idea what he is talking about, if it weren’t for the College Republicans asking him to run, he wouldn’t know SSFC existed."
I'm impressed you know how I decided to run better then I do. It couldn't have been I read this article in the Badger Herald:
http://badgerherald.com/news/2004/11/23/ssfcapprovesasm_bu.php
…and was angered by the stipend-raising practices of the SSFC and thus decided to run. No, it had to be a College Republican conspiracy.
“'I will eliminate excessive acronyms (SSFC, ASM, etc.) that allow our government to act in secrecy and with no accountability.'
How exactly do the words ASM and SSFC allow the government to act in secrecy? All meeting times are posted about a semester in advance, all meetings are open to the public, etc. So David, what the hell are you talking about?"
The rhetoric I use refers to the many experiences I have had on the campaign trail these past weeks. I have needed to spend 2-3 minutes with practically every voter to explain what a simple "budget committee" and "student council" are from the silly, elitist acronyms ASM and SSFC.
These are people who said that unless I had explained this to them, they would never have taken the time to figure it out and vote.
For this reason, acronyms like these are shrouding our student government from the very students they represent. They are so unnecessarily complex that they breed an apathetic disease that many students have a hard time curing.
So yes, they do allow the government to act with secrecy. They make the make the government's happenings incomprehensible and thus an unknowable secret for many.
"'Many in the Student Segregated Funds Committee'
You mean Student Service Finance Committee? Good thing you at least know the name of the committee you’re running for."
I'm not sure how this error happened, but I accept full responsibility for it. The buck stops with me. I apologize for any confusion it caused.
"'This is money that could help relieve the burden of our tuition.'
Not even close. Students have no say over tuition, and the two bills aren’t at all related. Besides, the chancellor sets seg fee levels, not ASM."
Yes, students do have no say over how much their tuition costs, although this in no way means they have no say in how their tuition is paid for. I am talking about lowering the cost of Segregated Fees to reduce the total amount of expenses students face or using them to assist students in paying tuition.
The SSFC has the power to do this by outright cutting the cost of Segregated Fees or by giving them to organizations that will provide for those who need help paying for their tuition as opposed to spending it on salaries for its own members and private club excursions to Florida.
"'Sometimes it is because SSFC members want a $5,000 annual salary'
Ummm… was there ever an instance of this? Only the SSFC chair gets a stipend, and considering all the hours she puts in it’s not even close to minimum wage.
Seriously, actually vote for someone who knows what they’re talking about.'"
Wrong. Read this article: http://badgerherald.com/news/2004/11/23/ssfcapprovesasm_bu.php "Most of the debate was dedicated to an amendment, which was proposed to add $12,000 to the budget to provide stipends to the currently unpaid members of SSFC" Ok, so salary increases were attempted by members of the SSFC.
""Although the proposed amendment did not pass, members encouraged each other to keep the amendment in mind when debating the internal Associated Students of Madison budget in the future. ASM committee members receive considerably larger wages compared to paid members of SSFC who do "comparable work," according to Wise.
"It is a slap in the face to earn less than the ASM chair," Wise said. "There needs to be some parity in stipends in this organization."
Cuts were also made to SSFC paid positions. Members cut wages for the future chair by $800, allocating $4,000 for the position. They also passed a $300 cut to the vice-chair position, which will receive $2,000 in the next fiscal year."
Increasing the stipends of the chair as part of the $12,000 amendment would have meant a chair salary of about 5 grand annually. At the same time when SSFC members like Wise say they want a budget amendment that brings parity in stipends, that to me means SSFC members besides the chair want a 5 grand stipend annually as well.
Looking forward to more criticism from y'all; after all, my convictions can only be strengthened after being tested in heated argument.
Best Regards, David Lapidus SSFC Candidate, Fall 2005
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I think everyone sucks, including the school. NO ONE should decide how to spend the money.. BECAUSE IT SHOULDNT BE SPENT. I’m an out of state student. Give me my money back. I dont want to pay for obnoxious feminists, etc. This is way too out of control.